We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rusty Bradford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rusty , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To be successful in photography but really any business we need help from at least one other like minded person. I often felt early in my career that I could do it all on my own. I really believe trying to achieve your business goals by yourself is a fools game. You need 1 person in this world who you can brainstorm and bounce ideas and concepts back and forth with. Developing a like minded strategy with this person and actively leaning on each others strengths and weaknesses can be the difference in succeeding of failing. Henry Ford who started Ford was a brilliant man and is often recognized as the inventor of the assembly line to build his vehicles. He could see the big picture but he needed his wife to help him reach such a high level of success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Rusty Bradford is a Dallas-based food, beverage and product photographer. His photography career began at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, where he earned a degree specializing in advertising photography and industrial scientific photography. After being technically trained, he spent time as a digital photo retoucher, studio manager, a grip assistant on film and TV shows, as well as a photographer’s assistant at several top photo studios around Dallas. Informed by his prolific experience with hundreds of photographers on countless locations around the country, he was able to cultivate a visual style that is uniquely his own and in 2012, Rusty Bradford Photography was born. Rusty’s photography is a unique blend of artistic inspiration and technical mastery. Working out of his studio in the heart of the photo district, his calm and respectful demeanor ensures the work environment will be low-stress and very productive.
Rusty spends most of his free time with his wife at the lake and enjoys cooking, fishing, golf, hiking and traveling the back roads of Texas.
Rusty has been honored to work with clients such as The Container Store, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay and HEB.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

So during Covid time period it was all about being flexible and pivoting. During Covid a lot of work was going away and company’s were pulling back there budgets or not spending at all. It was crucial for me to find companies that were still doing great during covid. So stay at home business were actually doing great during covid since so many people were remodeling there homes or reorganizing since they had no place else to go. I noticed organization brands had released some of there full time employees during the early covid scare but business was doing very well still and they didn’t take a huge hit like other brands in general. I was able to work with these companies on a freelance basis and actually did very well during the covid period.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is helping the client get what they want and them being excited to go use the imagery for there project. Developing a concepts with an agency or client and working with them to achieve this look is very rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rustybradford.com
• Instagram: rustybradford

Image Credits
Rusty Bradford Photography